


The Great Dan and Phil Camping Trip™

by slg05



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Camping, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Marriage Proposal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:07:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28188168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slg05/pseuds/slg05
Summary: It started with the four of them, Dan, Phil, Martyn, and Cornelia. It started with a rare weekend off and a rented cabin and bad romcoms and getting drunk on clear skies and fresh air and maybe just a bit of alcohol. It started with an offhand comment towards the famously-introverted couple, “You’d never survive a night outside.” And, of course, it was taken as a challenge.(Dan and Phil go camping)
Relationships: Cornelia Dahlgren/Martyn Lester, Dan Howell/Phil Lester, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 17





	The Great Dan and Phil Camping Trip™

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic and I'm quite nervous but also excited! This is a gift for danni-boy-needs-help on Tumblr as part of the Phandom Holiday Gift Exchange 2020. The prompts I used were "a proposal, tooth rotting fluff about them on a camping trip and campfire cuddles" and I only kind of fulfilled the second but I hope you enjoy! (Sorry in advance for the ending, I couldn't decide whether to leave it there or keep going. Also, I don't really like how I wrote Phil and he's quite OOC but I don't know how to fix it.)
> 
> Huge thanks to @Ilikestopwatches for betaing!!

It started with the four of them, Dan, Phil, Martyn, and Cornelia. It started with a rare weekend off and a rented cabin and bad romcoms and getting drunk on clear skies and fresh air and maybe just a bit of alcohol. It started with an offhand comment towards the famously-introverted couple, “You’d never survive a night outside.” And, of course, it was taken as a challenge.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
“So we have a tent?”  
“Yep.”  
“The big sleeping bag?”  
“Also yes.”  
“Lube?”  
“Dan, get your mind out of the gutter.”  
“....Food?”  
“Eggs, a pan, four packs of crisps, and lots of sweets. We’ll pick up a pizza on the way.”  
“Backup power bank?”  
“Yes, Dan, for the last time! We have everything.” Phil sighed, having gone over that list at least a dozen times over the past few days. They’d already gone over it twice that day and it was only noon. He wasn’t really mad though, could never be mad at Dan for long. Dan just wanted this to go well, which Phil understood entirely, though maybe for a slightly different reason. Dan just wanted to defend their honour or whatever, and Phil was more amused than anything.

Phil’s thoughts drifted to the small black box stored snugly at the bottom of his bag. If Dan could tell that Phil’s heart wasn’t fully in his teasing as Dan triple-checked everything, he didn’t say anything. And if he noticed the small smile that Phil was failing to hide, well hopefully he attributed it to excitement about the trip. They were spending a night out camping in the woods, a whole hour from civilisation. For now, they were just dipping their toes into outdoor adventuring; there was an option for a wifi hotspot, for fucks sake. An option that they may or may not have taken. 

Back to Phil’s plan; this would be the perfect opportunity. Phil would almost have said it was fate, except he could have sworn he saw a twinkle in his brother’s eye that night. Combine that with the fact that Martyn knew Phil had been wanting to propose and his knowledge of Dan’s inability to turn down a challenge? Yeah, Martyn definitely had an ulterior motive when he brought up camping…

A loud noise snapped him out of his thoughts. More like a loud person, really. “Phiiiilllyyy, c’mon,” Dan all but whined from the hall, clearly eager to get going. Phil shouldn’t have been surprised by Dan’s excitement; he knew he wasn’t the only one that liked to try new things. They basically lived by the idea of trying anything once—even scary non-internet things (though the wifi was a must). 

Phil walked over to the console table by the door. Peering into the drawer, he frowned. “Dan,” he yelled, “Do you know where the car keys are?”  
“Yeah, dummy, I have them,” Dan answered, impatient but still fond.  
“You do know I’m driving, right?” Phil sassed back.  
“Uh, hell no,” Dan replied, “I am. The last time you drove more than a mile, you almost hit a tree four separate times.”  
“But I won rock-paper-scissors,” Phil reminded Dan, referencing their game the previous night that concluded the same debate. “And rock-paper-scissors is absolute,” Phil continued.  
“Fiiiine, but I fear for my safety. If I die, tell Colin I love him,” Dan acquiesced, ever the dramatic, adding on “And you have to make it up to me later.” Phil could tell he was fake-pouting.

With that matter settled, Phil joined Dan in the hall, and they walked outside to wait for their taxi (which would take them to the car hire where they’d then get a car to drive to the campsite. Phil didn’t understand why they couldn’t just take a taxi the entire way, but Dan was insistent on an ‘authentic experience’).  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
The taxi ride was fine, quite uneventful. They weren’t recording, so there was no questioning looks from the driver, and they didn’t have to explain their career in a way that didn’t sound creepy, so the causes of awkwardness were limited to their always-present natural awkwardness and standing around as the driver meticulously organised their bags so they’d fit in the small car (They had far too many bags for two days of camping and Phil blamed Dan entirely for that). After 30 minutes of social media scrolling, they made it to the car hire, and after another 15 minutes of small talk and walking, they were ready to go. Despite Phil’s nerves and Dan’s rambling, they made it onto the open road (or as open as London side streets can be, anyway) by midafternoon, and with that, The Great Dan and Phil Camping Trip™ had begun.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Emergency pee break five minutes after passing up on stopping at a service area? Check. Dan asking Phil to play a game even though Phil needed to focus on not crashing the car? Check. Running out of snacks halfway through even though they brought enough to feed a small army? Check. Dan scaring the life out of Phil by rummaging through his bag for more snacks? Check. Phil asking Dan to scratch a random part of his body? His right ear, his left calf, and between his shoulder blades. Going to wikiHow to remember how to fill a fuel tank without creating a fire hazard? Check. Phil getting distracted by an animal and almost crashing the car? Only twice, surprisingly. That was two heart attacks for Phil and three for Dan over a one-hour period. So about par for the course. 

They arrived at the campsite late afternoon. Despite the near-death (or worse than death if Dan had found the ring) scenarios, they made it with pizza and cookies for later; they had survived part one of The Great Dan and Phil Camping Trip™. But that was just the easy part, of course.

Dan had made a to-do list for when they arrived:  
1\. Unload the car  
2\. Set up the tent  
3\. Lay out the sleeping bag  
4\. Start the fire  
5\. Camp

First, they set about unloading the car. Really, Phil unloaded the car and Dan spent 15 minutes picking a playlist. But it got done. Step one, check. 

Second, they needed to put up the tent. This was going to be a struggle, to say the least. In true Dan and Phil fashion, they bypassed the directions completely, instead choosing to rip open the packaging and dump the pieces onto the ground rather unceremoniously. Phil took the lead, having had some experience, although minimal, setting up a tent with his family. Looking at the mess in front of them, he instructed Dan to, “go over there and lay the tarp out while I smush the sticks together.” After 5 minutes of stick-smushing and teasing and bad puns and untangling knots that weren’t there in the first place, the tarp was laid flat next to four long rods. “Okay,” Phil started again, reassessing the area around them, “Now we need to get my rods into your holes.” Dan didn’t even bother trying to contain his laughter at that. And Phil’s poorly-hidden smirk told Dan that he had known exactly what he was saying. Intentional unintentional sexual innuendos aside, they had work to do. Rods went into holes, and then back out of holes because they were put in the wrong holes, and then back into the right holes because apparently there were correct holes now, and by the third rod, Dan couldn’t tell if Phil was still talking about pitching a tent. One particularly bad comment earned Phil a cuff on the shoulder. He responded equally as maturely with, “Dan! You’re so dirty-minded,” which was replied to in turn with a dignified middle finger. The tent got set up nonetheless, at least. By the end, Dan was giggling nonstop and blush covered Phil’s cheek. He was no longer even attempting to hide the smirk. Finally, step two was complete. 

The sleeping bag was spread out without issue, and then the only thing left on the list was to start the fire. They were both completely uncoordinated, easily distracted, and too tall for their own good; what could go wrong? Surprisingly little was the answer. The campsite came stocked with firewood, so there was no risk of an accidental axe murder. Dan fancied himself a fire-building expert after watching two youtube videos and built an actually semi-stable pile of logs. Phil channelled his inner Steve and made a self-proclaimed ‘very impressive’ nest of kindling around the logs. Then came the infamously difficult challenge of….. using flint and steel. It was all going so well until the damn flint and steel. Phil didn’t know they existed outside of Minecraft, let alone how to use one, and Dan wasn’t much better off. So the next 5 minutes were spent valiantly attempting to create a spark by aggressively rubbing the two objects together. After 5 minutes, Dan had the brilliant idea to google how to use it - wikiHow to the rescue once again. 

“Daaaan, it’s still not working,” Phil complained as Dan read him the instructions. 

Dan glanced up to troubleshoot. “Phil, you idiot, you have to put it near the kindling if you want the spark to catch,”

“......oh.”

The sun was just starting to set by the time they managed to start the fire. The car was unpacked. The tent was up. The sleeping bag was down. The fire was burning. It was time to camp. Whatever that meant.

“Dan?”  
“Yes, Phil?”  
“What do we do now?”  
“Well I, personally, think we deserve food after all of our hard work.”  
“I did more work so you have to warm up the pizza.”  
“Did not!”  
“Did too!”  
“Fine, I’ll do it, but just because you’re being annoying.”  
“Thanks, Dan, love you, Dan.”  
“Fuck off.”

By the time they finished eating, the sun was fully below the horizon and a pleasant evening chill had set in. The pizza was good as far as reheated pizza goes, and it’s difficult to go wrong with cookies for dessert. When Phil had finished cleaning up their trash, he found Dan laying out a blanket he wasn’t even aware they had brought. Dan laid down before gesturing for Phil to join him. Phil, confused but used to his boyfriend’s antics, complied, snuggling up next to Dan on the small square protecting them from the slightly damp grass. Laying pressed together on the blanket, Dan staring straight up at the sky, Phil was still confused until Dan pointed up.

“Phil?” Dan’s voice was barely above a whisper, and full of awe.  
“Yeah, Dan?”  
“Look at the stars” 

The rest of the world faded away as they laid on that blanket and watched the stars. Tomorrow they’d have to go back to dealing with responsibilities and the real world, but in that moment, it was just Dan and Phil and the stars. And Dan would have been content to stay like that forever, stealing random kisses under a perfect sky, pristine silence interrupted only by ‘I love you’s and the wind. But Phil’s thoughts were drifting.

“I’ll be right back,” Phil whispered, kissing Dan’s forehead before standing up and walking towards the tent. He rustled through his bag as quietly as possible, grabbed the small box tucked in the bottom, and secured it in his pocket. When he exited the tent, Dan was scrolling on his phone, brows furrowed intently. He seemed to find what he was looking for right as he noticed Phil.  
“Hey Phil,” Dan started, pressing play on the song he had been looking for. “Dance with me?” he asked, offering out his hand as music began to play softly. Phil took it with a soft chuckle, fastening his other hand around Dan’s waist and pulling their chests flush. They swayed to the music, hands intertwined and foreheads pressed together.

_'Cause, we were just kids when we fell in love, not knowing what it was, I will not give you up this time. But darling, just kiss me slow, your heart is all I own, and in your eyes, you're holding mine.  
Baby, I'm dancing in the dark with you between my arms, barefoot on the grass, listening to our favourite song. When you said you looked a mess, I whispered underneath my breath, but you heard it, darling, you look perfect tonight._

Even as the song faded out, they continued to hold each other. Standing in Dan’s arms, staring into his eyes, Phil was overwhelmed with love. He loved Dan so damn much. Dan who couldn’t say no to a challenge. Dan who overprepared for everything almost to a fault, who just wanted everything to go perfectly. Dan who made camping in the wilderness fun and romantic. Dan who was with him through everything, good or bad, and who let Phil into his everything too. Dan who made Phil smile with dumb jokes and who put up with Phil’s in return. Dan who was his other half, who he couldn’t imagine a future without. Phil pulled out of Dan’s arms and took a step back. Before Dan could protest, Phil took a deep breath and dropped to one knee.

“Daniel James Howell, will you marry me?”

“Yes.”


End file.
